We, the inhabitants of plane t Earth should be grateful that musicians like steve and mike are born here.

Acoustic show that for one reason or another is said that it doesn't *really* exist, but I love Steve's @coustic #'s on the Regal, such as from just the @coustic improv to Raga & Le Petite Groove as well as Groundhog & whatever else he wants to play @coustic (all done on the RegalSquare Neck or even the Octive Mando). I like it when SK mixes it up a bit and does an acoustic show i.e. Arielle's BDay show in 2003 (3/23/03) at Chester's which wastes no time in getting into the @coustic feel from the very beginning to the end of the show which starts off with the Regal Square Neck to the Octive Mandolin and then that 2nd set-whoa I mean wow Bronx Experiment played with the Octive Mando & then gets wickedly awesome when he breaks out the Walnut Stringmaster WITH EBOW, then I think this is the show where he dedicates Many Rivers to AP's on the white stringmaster(possibly the best ever?) followed by Cowboy continuing wih the white stringmaster, which is followed by "Acoustic" Wildlife which Steve goes back to the Octive Mando, then switches thing up again with Steel Guitar Rag & Can't Find My Way Home both with the Rickenbacker Lapsteel, then back to 5 B4 Funk with the Octive Mando again then closes the show with maybe the best Stella Blue I have *ever* heard him play which closes the show with the White Stringmaster. After the band intros Happy BDay is sung to Arielle to close a beautiful night of music.(if you don't have 3/23/2003 do yourself a favor and DL it.) Another show which is a real treat is SK & Fareed Haque 7/2/2005 if I remember correctly, I especially *loved* all the 2005 shows I got to see, both in the Summer & Fall/Winter both, loved both the lineups. SK & FH played an improv set that absolutely blew my mind, this is before I got to meet Fareed in 2006, and had the delimema of deciding between SK&Fs in Fayetteville, or Fareed Haque's Earth Ensemble in my own backyard so to say in 2007 which I already had tickets to and gave them to a friend, who frequents Jorma's Fur Peace Ranch and goes to all the shows every year there like I do, ever since it's opening in 1998. How fast a decade goes. Anyhow, sorry for the rant, I chose Fayetteville which made me happy and the girl that got my front row ticket a Jorma's was really stoked as well and that made me happy too. Back to 2005, shortly after seeing that great 7/2/2005 Steve & Fareed improv I was fortunate enough to be able to drive 2 hours to a little Festival in West Virginia that I catch myself going to just about every year called "All Good" where no only was I gonna get to hear Steve Solo Acoustc in the middle of July, I think it was the 17th that Steve played only 4 songs, two of which were actually songs he told me at the Mangy Moose in Jackson Hole,WY in August and the said "the middle two I just made shit up" which I though was great, I mean I couldn't tell, he played like he knew it all by heart and not only did he wow me there with his acoustic skills yet again, but there were some other nice acts there, none like Steve IMHO, but he is to me where the water line after the flood crested and left a line. I mean Ratdog & Franti & others were there but I went for the Acoustic Solo Steve, and it was worth the 3 day pass alone for me. This happened again to me last summer where I was going to a Festival featuring SK & since MKaran was sick I didn't even go to the festival, cost me 75 bucks, but I got the shows the next day as a PA taper I new that was going taped it all for me and put it up for me to DL the next day or the day after that. The next run of SKB shows started out West_far out west beginning in Canada in Nelson,BC to 2 Idaho shows to Montana(where my uncle lives) to where I really got to chat it up with on the porch outside the Mangy Moose where I went out for a smoke & there was Steve showing Mookie the chord changes on one of his guitar (forget which one right now) and I grinned as Reed & Moose were joking around with each other and Rodney was in a Zen-like state preparing himself for the gig while waiting for his food he ordered to finish he told me. This was the best show of that Nelson,BC run IMHO, no doubt about it, we decided to drive down to Jackson Hole,WY through Yellowstone National Park which was really beautiful from my perception, and the show was so small and intimate, I mean there were probably less than 100 people there, and Iwe got to eat with the band, CM let us sit through the soundcheck, and the show was superb, I mean it couldn't have been any better from the opening notes of Bad Hair to the Band Intros after the show closing Avalon,the rest of the Colorado shows couldn't IMHO touch it. I didn't make it to Nova Scotia for Mitch's final gig in Nova Scotia, I just couldn't do it financially. Makes me sad that Mitch "Moose" Stein left the band less than 10 days later(after the 8/17/05 Mangy Moose show) and the lose of Moose makes me really miss Rodney who was always my favorite SKB drummer, yes better than Prarie Prince, or whomever else you wanna say was better in 2000 SKB. I must admit, I LOVED the Fall/Winter 2005 tour with SK on guitars, kalimba, etc; Rodney behind the kit; Reed on Bass & Mr.Robert Walter on keys; I caught all the east coast show that I possibly could with that great lineup. I am really hoping for a Kimock tour of some kind in 2008, that's all I want for my BDay, Christmas & the New Year which I will be celebrating tonight. Great Acoustic show here, really liked the Q&A part in the middle and love Mike Babyak's stuff-if I lived in NCarolina I would see many "Triplefret" shows or whatever Mr.66starfire would play, I would take it all in. Great finale show on Mike's hometurf 1/22/2006, man please Steve bring it all back in '08_we're starving out here, need more Waves please and Thanks in Advance~SKB FAN

PS: Thanks to both Mike and Steve for doing this prior to the show and thanks for just doing what you do-inspire people. You sure have inspired me for one.